Ascent Trip Report

Back in June, Luiza had asked if I would be interested to join her colleague Myriam, along with some of her friends, on a trip to Katahdin next fall. I gladly accepted as I had never had the opportunity to go there since my winter trip in 2008.

Reservations were made for camping at Chimney Pond 4 months in advance but we still couldn't get all the room needed for every night. We would all come in on Friday night and camp at Roaring Brook. Then on the next night part of the group would camp at Chimney Pond while the rest would have to hike back down to Roaring Brook. On our final night here, the whole group would camp at Chimney Pond.

On Friday morning, Myriam and her boyfriend Philippe came to pick us up at Luiza's place around 9:30am. We left on highway 73 south towards Saint-Théophile where an adventure raid partner of Myriam's, Brigitte, would meet us. We stopped at a restaurant near highway 269 where Brigitte would leave her car for the weekend. After picking her up and packing the car, the 5 of us crammed in and headed towards the border. It wasn't long to cross into the USA and the road towards Millinockett was uneventful. We stopped there to buy some final supplies and headed for Baxter State Park. We missed the toll road at the crossover with Golden Road and had to turn back at Abol Bridge. We finally made it to Roaring Brook Campground around 5:00pm. After setting up the camp we prepared dinner around a campfire. It wasn't long before we went to bed as it was pretty cold that night.

During the night, the wind picked up and brought warmth. We got up around 7:30am to a clear sunny sky and warm weather. Luiza and I broke camp and prepared our packs in order to bring all our gear up to Chimney Pond while the others prepared day packs. We signed in at the ranger station exactly at the day hike cutoff time of 9:00am. We went up Chimney Pond trail so Luiza and I could dump the camping gear at our lean-to before the ascent. It took us around 2 hours to get up there. We met a ranger coming down and he told us the mountain today was rated Grade 2, which meant to tread carefully because of the wind. At Chimney Pond, we found our lean-to, got rid of superfluous gear, and checked in again at the ranger station. It was now 11:30am and we were and hour and a half past cutoff time but there was no problem leaving on the trail.

From there we took Dudley trail towards Pamola peak. We almost instantaneously found that it would be quite challenging. The first problem was a large mass of huge boulders piled up chaotically. Past this was a quite steep trail going through quickly disappearing shrubs and large boulders. Very soon we were scrambling through a steep and demanding boulder field. It was very exciting and we were making a good pace through it. The weather was steady and the views were amazing all the way. We took our lunch break high on Dudley trail before hitting the summit so we could be sheltered from the wind. We chose a section where a large boulder was creating a nice wall behind which we were quite comfortable.

It probably took around two hours to get to the summit. As the slope eased out the main mass of Katahdin and the Knife Edge appeared. It was an impressive view that left us gasping in amazement. We took some pictures and met some people coming in the other direction before heading down towards Chimney Peak. Up to now, the climb had been some demanding class 3 scrambling, but we were not prepared for what lay a short distance away. The down-climb to the col was only a preamble for the Knife Edge but it still required much work from everyone.

Luiza was glad we go bouldering at least once a week as it helped much in having confidence on the trickier moves. Down at the col, Philippe and I waited for the girls to join us as we saw groups of people starting their descent from Chimney Peak towards us.

Myriam and Luiza coming up Dudley trail.

Me further up on Dudley trail (photo by Myriam Chênevert).

Luiza and me at the summit.

The Knife Edge seen from Pamola.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

3534 ft / 1076 m

Elevation Loss:

197 ft / 59 m

Distance:

4 mi / 6.5 km

Grade/Class:

Class 2, 3, 4

Quality:

10 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions:

Maintained Trail, Scramble, Exposed Scramble

Gear Used:

Tent Camp

Weather:

Cool, Windy, ClearExceptional Indian summer the whole time!

Ascent Statistics

Elevation Gain:

3534 ft / 1076 m

Extra Loss:

95 ft / 28 m

Distance:

4 mi / 6.4 km

Route:

Chimney Pond trail, Dudley trail

Trailhead:

Roaring Brook Campground 1480 ft / 451 m

Time Up:

4 Hours 30 Minutes

Descent Statistics

Elevation Loss:

102 ft / 31 m

Distance:

0 mi / 0.1 km

Route:

Knife Edge trail

Trailhead:

Pamola/Chimney col 4817 ft / 1468 m

Time Down:

10 Minutes

Ascent Part of Trip: Baxter State Park (October 2011) (2 nights total away from roads)

GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/longPeaks: climbed and unclimbed by Gabriel CouëtClick Here for a Full Screen MapNote: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO resposibility or liability from use of this data.